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For months, Santa Barbara city staff and West Beach Music Festival organizers have butted heads over the event’s plans, permits, and insurance, and this week they smacked skulls once again in a disagreement that adds another dimension to the already contentious processes taking place behind closed doors.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Jeremy and Joshua Pemberton — owners of event management company Twiin Productions Inc. — Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Rapp demanded that the brothers submit $93,000 in fees and security deposits (50 percent of the total amount) by Monday, August 16. The previous deadline had been set a full 30 days later than that date. Shocked by the order, the Pembertons said they don’t think they’ll be able to come up with the cash in time and said the conditions are “absolutely ridiculous.”

Echoing sentiments of the less-than-cordial relationship that the Pembertons and Rapp have begrudgingly built in the last few months, Jeremy said, “They’re trying to put us out of business … We’re not in a position to come up with $93,000 in five days.” The twin brothers claim they are being unfairly singled out by the city and simply want to put on a good show for the community that will generate revenue for the area. They’re reportedly exploring their legal options, holding meetings with multiple attorneys to see if and how they can fight the new stipulations.

Paul Wellman (file)

2009 West Beach Music Festival

They’re also fuming at the fact that the city’s risk management office is now making them buy a $5 million insurance policy when it had previously agreed on a $1 million amount. This will require the twins to pay an additional $50,000, they stated, as their brokers try to track down a company to underwrite the policy, something they’ve reportedly had a very hard time doing. And the twins said such a policy is unheard of in the event-planning world; their advisors — one of whom is the head man in charge of Outside Lands and Bonnaroo — have purportedly never dealt with such a number.

Interim Risk Manager Mark Howard defended the dollar amount, explaining that, based on information gathered from past year’s shows and looking at similar events in other California cities, the policy is reasonable to protect the city from any potential liability. Last year’s coverage — which Jeremy said cost Twiin Productions around $700 to have underwritten — was “probably inadequate” he said. “I hate to be the Monday morning quarterback, but that’s what you’re asking me to do.”

While the Pembertons had until Friday to provide a certificate of insurance for the $5 million policy, they sent a letter of their own to Rapp — minutes before the 4 p.m. deadline — that said they were moving forward with the $1 million protection coverage, and daring her or anyone else to do anything about it. If the city decides to shut them down, said the Pembertons in their letter, they expect to be compensated for “serious financial losses” including expenses and profits.

The letter accuses Parks and Recreation staff — on June 18 of this year — of manipulating language within the department’s Special Event Guide & Application document that would allow the city to now raise event insurance costs as it sees fit, as opposed to requiring the blanket $1 million policy that had been in place since 2007 and necessary for any and all similar events. “It was a pretty strategic play by them,” said Jeremy, explaining staff made the move without any discussion or approval from the department’s commission and without any city council or community oversight.

The letter also claims that the justification city staff used to jack up the policy price is ludicrous. Using the L.A. Marathon — which sees tens of thousands of volunteers and participants every year as well as hundreds of thousands of spectators — as a point of comparison, the city’s risk management office is grasping at straws, said Jeremy. “Our insurance brokers couldn’t stop laughing when they heard they compared our event to the L.A. Marathon,” he relayed.

Lastly, the brothers said in their letter that the city has already purchased liability umbrella coverage to protect itself, the cost of which is included in the city’s overhead expenditures used to calculate the prices of the permits it issues. In other words, explained Jeremy, the Twiin Productions is already paying toward the cost of the city’s umbrella coverage.

During a brief conversation with Rapp — who is on vacation and couldn’t be reached for further comment — late Friday, the Parks and Recreation director reportedly told Jeremy that the brothers could keep moving forward with their planning and that the two sides would meet next week to discuss things further.

So far, said Jeremy, the company has spent around $750,000 this year to put on the show, and expects to invest a total of $1.1 million when all is said and done. Since its inception, Twiin Productions has sunk more than $4.2 million into the annual West Beach Music Festival without ever making a profit.

The festival recently took on a new incarnation when city hall in late June forbid the Pembertons from holding their annual event on West Beach, citing concerns of vocal residents and business owners who said the 2009 show was nothing short of a disaster with its overwhelmingly loud volume, unruly attendees, and blasphemous performers.

Paul Wellman

Police Chief Cam Sanchez listens to the appeal from Twin Productions.

Police dispatchers received calls nonstop throughout the event’s three days from residents — as far away as Summerland and Carpinteria — complaining about the noise, and hoteliers said they lost a significant chunk of revenue when guests, unhappy with the shenanigans nearby, checked out early or didn’t come at all.

The event has since been moved to the grass of Chase Palm Park, on the beach side of Cabrillo Boulevard, and is now limited to 6,500 attendees per day for the dates of September 24 and 25. Other, smaller events will take place throughout the city during that weekend as well. More than 13,000 people swarmed West Beach at the height of the beachside bash last year, reportedly leading to issues with security, underage drinking, and the overall mismanagement of a concert that officials said had grown too large and unwieldy with current levels of staff and planning.

As the Pembertons have scrambled to put together this year’s show in a new venue — burning the candle at both ends, they said, to make sure everything comes together in the 40 short days until the festival kicks off — Rapp has been less than impressed with their progress thus far. She acknowledged that while first-round plans are inherently rough and provide more of a jumping off point for discussion and negotiation, Twiin Productions’s submitted documents on sound management, crowd control, parking organization, and whatnot are completely sub-par.

In the letter she sent to them last Tuesday, Rapp criticized the twins’ proposals (actually putting the word “plans” in quotation mark seemingly to indicate that they’re hardly plans at all) and wrote, “Across the board, we believe the materials are confusing, incomplete, and do not provide sufficient information to us to know what Twiin Productions is committing to in order to ensure that there will be no repeat of problems that occurred with the 2009 event.”

Paul Wellman (file)

West Beach Music Festival Sept. 19, 2009

Rapp told The Independent over the phone that she wishes the brothers would spend less time complaining to the media and more time getting their ducks in a row. “I would much rather see them putting the energy into preparing the materials that we’ve asked for,” she said. “We’re very concerned … I don’t know how much more clear I can be with them.” And while the brothers made many a promise that wooed the city council and Parks and Recreation Commission, said Rapp, she has yet to see many of those assurances in writing. “They’ve done a lot of talking, but there’s not a lot on paper,” she summed up.

Rapp said her staff has spent hours and hours trying to work with the Pembertons to get all the bits and pieces sorted out, but little has come out of the effort put forth from their end. An August 5 meeting — set to get both parties in the same room to begin hashing things out once and for all — was blown off by the brothers, she said. Jeremy claimed he sent multiple emails hoping for a confirmation, but never heard back and assumed the meeting was off.

Out of the numerous, bullet-pointed issues Rapp brought up in her letter, she highlighted two in conversation: The submitted sound plan, she said — one of the largest components of any concert, but especially important for this year’s West Beach Music Festival considering last year’s acoustic debacle — was little more than a best practices document that did little in the way of laying out concrete ideas.

“If you know that [sound] is a major concern,” Rapp said, in reference to the Pembertons, “you’ve had two public meetings where that was the biggest thing that was discussed, and you’re submitting a preliminary sound management plan, I would think you would put a little time and energy into that to described exactly what you’re going to do to make sure you don’t have the same problems.”

Paul Wellman

Jeremy (left) and Joshua Pemberton appeal to the Parks and Recreation Board to allow the 2010 West Beach Music Festival

Rapp also complained that the brothers’ preliminary parking arrangements are similarly inadequate. In the report — submitted to the Pembertons by their parking services vendor and then passed along to parks and recreation staff — the DoubleTree Resort is named as one of a few private properties near Chase Palm Park that would allow attendees to store their cars. When Rapp approached the DoubleTree as part of her standard follow-up, a representative said no such deal existed and the hotel wasn’t planning on letting any concert-goers park there.

Rapp admitted that she moved up the fee and security deposit deadlines, but said she did so for a good reason: “For the amount of staff time being put into this event thus far and the concerns that we have about this event, I’m basically looking at this as good faith,” she said. “To me, that’s reasonable for someone who is planning a large-scale event and having to contract with vendors and selling tickets. We’re needing to know the event is solid and can go forward,” she said. “There’s no trust here. It does come down to that.”

She and her staff — who manage 80-100 events per year — are being such sticklers, she said, because if anything does go wrong, it’s on them. “I need something to hang my hat on,” she explained. “If we have a repeat of what happened last year, the city council will be looking at me.”

And as far as having it out for the Pembertons and trying to shut down the show for no solid reasons, Rapp said that was just silly: “If we were going to say no, the time would have been immediately after the council meeting,” she said in reference to councilmembers’ request that Parks and Recreation staff take a look at a new game plan at Chase Palm Park to see if it was even doable.

“But we didn’t do that,” she continued. “If I and staff — including the city administrator’s office and the police department — really didn’t want to do it, we would have made that decision then, but we didn’t. What do I win by putting all this time now in trying to pull it all together, then try and shut it down?”

In response to Rapp’s claim that the brothers haven’t been as communicative and professional as they maybe could have been, Jeremy said: “Some of our mentors that we’ve talked to about this have compared this kind of dialogue to the way that politicians talk about Democrats versus Republicans and vice versa. You can always find some way to bring negative light to any communication, and I think that’s what happening here.”

Comments

Everyone, including the promoters, admits that previous shows have been a disaster for the community. The brothers seem to be trying to do better, but it sounds like they still have a lot to learn.

On the other hand, a last-minute shakedown for more money, apparently reneging on the agreement between the parties, seems to be an injustice. It's not unlike what the City has done to some of the medical marijuana dispensaries, making them jump through all kinds of hoops and invest huge amounts of money, and then once they're up and running the City changes the rules of the game and puts them out of business. That's not fair.

If I were to put a gun to somebody's head and demand $93,000, I'd go to prison for a long time. If this is a legally defensible claim for fees, then fine. But if it's arbitrary and if it violates what the parties have agreed to, then it looks a lot like extortion. This late-hour demand is ham-handed at best and unconscionable at worst. Nancy Rapp is a good administrator who's clearly looking out for the community's interests, but I think she's making a big misstep, at least from a public relations perspective. Right or wrong, it's got to really gall a lot of people who are looking at the picture from the outside and wondering why government has the right to push people around like this. No wonder so many citizens have such contempt for authority.

A very complex and interesting situation. The big question is, what's best for the community?

I missed the part about "the brothers trying to do better".They are still playing the same shell game they've played for the last two years. Enough already. Move on boys, to another "beach" upon which to hold your "festival". Santa Barbara was never anything more than just a golden name for you.

Oh this martrdom. Plan Santa Barbara! I really wish the council, police commission and community would roll back the clock; pre- Paseo Nuevo era and return to the idea that this is a laid back town instead of this high profile chamber of commerce driven anything goes party town. This is where we live! This is our environment. We need to roll up the downtown sidewalks at about 11:30 and stop trying to turn this city into an around the clock mardi gra. The city needs to encourage visitors to enjoy the refined arts, historical sites, appreciate the ocean environment, parks and wildlife or just relax. How about activities with some grace and style instead of these brash promoter ideas while cutting their teeth in our established districts, closing down beaches, cranking up the jam, trampling over parkland and neighborhoods.

This is why I decided many years ago to never trust the City of Santa Barbara and take my Biz somewhere els. They are only looking out for the rich people in the community and if you were ever for one or two days to change there routine, then everything comes to a halt. The politics in SB is the reason, in my opinion, cool stuff just will never see the light of day. The people of SB just bitch about anything that is of any inconvenience to them. I remember when I grew up in that city there were so many amazing events. I tried to plan a music fest to be apart of Earth Day and show the World that SB still cares about what it started so many years ago. The amount of red tape and hoops I would have had to jump though was the most ridiculous thing I have ever encountered. I would have had to down size my event to a show smaller than the County Bowl capacity. So I walked away because it is not worth it! I have promoted events all over the Nation and have never run into the crap I have in SB. Even with an event of this size in SB the crowd feels the police presents as a threat not the safety that they should be providing. The crowd feels scared and that is when it can get ugly! I work Lollapalooza, Bonnoroo, ACL Fest etc, the friends of mine that promote these events just laugh at the stories from SB. I feel for the Twiins and I am amazed they are still fighting. My advice is to take your event to a city that will appreciate you and welcome the revenue you will bring to them! Otherwise you will just face the red tape they throw at you and the police state they will make you agree to, not to mention the money you have to pay for it. Just sad!

I was initially coming down on the side of Twiin, however I don't feel that Ms. Rapp is unreasonable. The real issues lie somewhere in between. After seeing video of the mosh pit and beer garden fences being moved to accomodate passing of brew to possibly underage drinkers, I could see the potential for a level of mayhem the police were not equipped to handle. What a drag to be staying at a waterfront hotel and be blasted by the volume "turned to eleven." I would like to suggest, on a much smaller scale, several impromptu bulbout festivals. Bring your neighbors! Put it on You Tube. Blue Line Bash? Anyone?

I was the original promoter and producer for Blue Line and I stopped because of the City of Santa Barbara. I had unbelievable headliners to bring amazing attention to Blue Line's cause. I had SBCC stadium on board as the venue with SBCC hosting Earth Day. I had the City Fire Dept loving my plan with every safety per caution in effect. I even had the Police Dept telling me I had it right, then I hit the wall that is the City of Santa Barbara. As far a turning it up to "11" you just need to hire sound people that know what they are doing. I was going to throw a larger event for Blue Line and it would have never impacted the water front crowd. Mosh pits happen and with the right security (not cops) it is never a problem. It just looks bad to people that do not understand them. I will agree with the way the drinking area was handled but there are so many ways to control that. I am getting ready for ACL and we over our 7 years of existence had never had a problem with underage drinking. Yes there are the few that get though but really the least of our worries. As far as people that stay on the water front, get over it, enjoy a festival or schedule a trip for another weekend. We as event planners have what we call curfews that stop an event at a certain time. It just goes to show that the people and city of SB is turning to the negative first without ever understanding how to work together. How many times was my day impacted by the rich blocking off whole sections of Montecito and Hope Ranch for there Privet Events but they just get to keep doing what ever they want. The City of SB has destroyed the community we once were to just open the gate to LA and the rest of the rich. Maybe if Oprah hosted the event there would be no problem at all!

"Our position is that we're not going to pay it, and we're going to continue moving forward with the event. It's just an asinine request."

Perhaps if the Pemberton Twiins did not respond like their quote above and threaten to sue the City whey they have no rights or entitlements being infringed, then they might be getting somewhere instead. Of course, their record of performance from last year has consequences when they now are looking for a totally discretionary decision by the same City officials.

Who are these two DONKEYS? They are SOOoooOoOO lucky they've had a couple of good years getting rich by bending EVERY ORDINANCE in our city's law books and driving locals insane. This event is completely out of control.

Do these idiots REALLY think they're GENIUSES for being the first two people to think of having a massive kegger on the beach every day? Let me tell you, Pembertons, you ain't. But everyone else followed the rules and realized it CANNOT be done OR paid for in this town. Not legally. You're lucky you got away with ruining our environment (both environmentally and our ambiance) for these past few years.

The Pembertons will continue to talk about this, mostly to the media, without putting what they need to in writing until it is too late - and then blame the City for their event cancellation. If they spent more time writing their plans properly instead of talking to lawyers about suing the City we would all be much better off.

The Pembertons act like a couple of shady charlatans; they claim to support the City's wishes and respect the residents of SB - all the while holding up their middle finger to the Parks & Rec dept. and whining to the media instead of using that effort to move or fix their defective, problematic, and sprawling festival.

Maybe they're too busy counterfeiting more city documents (like the waterfront parking pass debacle of last year.) Good Riddance to Twiin Productions.

Owen Dell: Intelligent conversation? Maybe you just want someone to echo your own comments. Do you really want to join Twiin Productions and jump on top of the parks and recreation department. I know it's popular to jump on the government. But maybe it is the public that is sometimes out of control or incompetent.

I think Nancy Rapp is appropriately responding to the production company's past history, current responses and the nature of these types of events. Just in case you've been busy filming a goofy landscaping video and aren't tuned into current events: a recent German music festival resulted in a stampede and 22 deaths. Locally a music festival ended abruptly when a motorcyclist roared onstage causing property damage and a stampede. A non-music event yesterday in the Mojave Desert resulted in 8 deaths. So the liability issue is appropriate and the "shakedown" as you describe it is irresponsible on your part. Nancy Rapp is doing her due diligence on this project to protect the city from liability. Again sometimes "the people" are just nuts.

Regardless of how you gauge intelligence, my comments were to suggest what it is I want this community to be; or as you suggest "what's best for the community." That is my opinion. Do not invalidate it just because we may disagree. I don't think anyone really wants these private raves to be allowed anywhere. So if you want one of these raves near where you live then circulate a petition. That's the democratic way. Good luck.

The $5 million insurance policy was actually part of the agreement reached months before this, the Twidiots just did not pay attention to that detail, which seems to be their MO on most of this. Nobody is getting a "shakedown" on that, the required insurance level has been known (had they bothered to look) for quite some time. Acting incensed and outraged at the City, soley due to their own unprofessional ignorance, is just another huge clue that these guys are not worth the effort.

Seriously, these kids are ridiculously unprepared to put on this event, as exampled by the shenanigans last year. Why the City has even gone this far trying to come to a workable scenario with these guys to continue is beginning to puzzle me.

If this was an opera or classical music I doubt there would be such a problem. But there is a defiant gap between the rich and the poor, when it comes to the what events or just about anything that goes on in this town. What about the Volleyball tournament that happens on west beach they had a beer garden. How many people attended that, did that destroy environment? How much was that Insurance?

Owen, I just wanted to say that I like your comment and you basically wrote just what I was thinking when I finished reading the article, which gave an unusually detailed account of both sides in this mess. Like you, I am a small business owner and shocked by how the city can, or apparently thinks it can, give and then effectively deny business permits. On the other hand, in this particular case Twiin Productions seems pretty unreliable (quite the opposite of Green Well, which I hope prevails in its lawsuit) and I am left with a big question mark hanging over my head.

The Pembertons don't seem to realize how hard it is to do business in this town, and how there is no way around any of it short of massive cash expenditures for various "exemptions" and "fees" which can be added or increased at any time.

That was an entertaining read! My favorite quote was "Since its inception, Twiin Productions has sunk more than $4.2 million into the annual West Beach Music Festival without ever making a profit." That is so cool. When I retire, I'm going to go into the concert festival non-profit business. Very fulfilling. What a bunch of horse $#!@

NItz: It should be no surprise to some business owners as to why they are failing. Making comparisons of apples and oranges indicates a certain amount of ineptitude. Yes there is something wrong with how the city handled the final medical marijuana ordinance. But that was after a lengthy 22 hearing process that morphed considerably in response to the electorate and after voting in 3 right wing narrow ideologues.

But to compare Green Well's permit revocation to this promotion business is a real stretch. For one thing this production company isn't opening up a sewing machine shop. They've applied for permission to use city property that impacts multiple property owners, public lands and streets, uses enjoyed by established users. There is also sensitive wildlife in the area that aren't even talked about. But what makes it worse is the performance of this production company and the complaints by the businesses and residents alike.

It was amazing to me to view the last hearing as the omnipresent local chamber president lobbied on behalf of this poorly run production company. What is it about business people that stick together until it is their own interest that is being impinged upon? Attend any day in our local courtrooms where you can hear businesses suing businesses over dirty laundry. The "business community" obviously does not always walk on water. There are good businesses and there are bad businesses. Government, no matter how sloppy, should attempt to look after everyone's interests. I think that is what is happening here.

LOL, twidiots is very appropriate. they need to attach themselves to the Santa Barbara name to get some "buzz" and "hype"while screwing over the Santa Barbara Park and Rec dept and some of its citizens. this group put on an event in IV a couple years back and the same happen, unorganized planning and numerous violations of the permits. this is pure FAIL